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Monday, January 25, 2010

ABNA Entry

Well, after more than two hours, I finally managed to finish uploading my ABNA entry. It's a good thing I decided to take the day off from work! I'm a wreck.

My troubles this morning arise out of the fact that CreateSpace designs its site to work properly only with the Windows operating system. As much as I admire Bill Gates personally, I detest Windows. I have to use it at work, and I hate it. After a couple of days hassling with Vista when I first bought this computer, I switched to Linux.

I was able to paste in my pitch and my excerpt but I couldn't upload my manuscript from this computer because the CreateSpace web page "Browse" button won't work. I knew what the problem was because some time ago I complained to CreateSpace because its book cover creator wasn't working. The response I got from tech support was to use a different computer, one that runs Windows. (They were right: it works just fine on Windows.)

So. I breathed deeply and decided not to lose my temper, at least until after I was finished submitting my entry.

I dug out my old, broken down laptop (the one that overheats if you leave it on for more than 45 minutes at a time and has a broken cover -- that is now more broken than ever). I managed eventually to get the thing fired up and log into CreateSpace.

First order of business was to migrate the manuscript from this computer to the other one. That should have been easy. I dug out a thumb drive from work that was still in my purse after a recent off site meeting. I copied the MSS from the Linux computer to the thumb drive and inserted it into the USB driver on the other one. The Windows computer wouldn't recognize the thumb drive. I know I could have figured out what I needed to do to install whatever stupid security software the IT department put on the damned thing, but the clock was ticking and the little 'puter was starting to get hot. I didn't have time to fool around, so I emailed the document to myself from this computer and then down loaded it on the other one.

That worked, and I managed to get the rest of the entry finished -- only minutes before the poor little 'puter overheated and locked up.

Gmail always comes through for me! Kudos to ACER for making a computer that has survived the constant use that one has and still works despite not having a working fan anymore. Amazingly the display screen still works even with the cover almost completely broken off from the base of the laptop.

I'm not going to bother to complain to CreateSpace. It would do no good, and I'm too overwrought anyway. The important thing is that the entry finally went through.

I'll reserve for another day the temper tantrum I'm going to throw when my old laptop finally gives up the ghost and I have to put Windows back on this computer in order to use my printer, CreateSpace and any number of other Windows-only applications. Sigh.

4 comments:

Oh Meredith, I'm so sorry you had so much trouble! I had my share of trouble too - I kept uploading and checking my excerpt, and the formatting looked hideous. I spent about an hour fixing just that. I wish we could have uploaded the excerpt as a file like we did the manuscript but oh well. Glad we are both entered! I hope we'll both hear some good news this time next month :)